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Grant’s Appliances Shuttered: Reports

Jolliet, Ill. – Grant’s Appliances, Electronics and More appears to have closed.

The five-store chain serving greater Chicago shut its doors Wednesday night, according to reports by area radio station 1340 WJOL and local newspaper The Herald-News.

The company’s website at GrantsApplance.com has been taken down, and calls to its headquarters office and flagship store here were unanswered. A handwritten sign reportedly taped to the Jolliet storefront reads, “Temporarily closed for inventory count.”

The move took customers by surprise, based on social network postings. On Yelp, a customer who photographed the sign claimed he was informed of the shut-down by a third-party installer looking for payment. Another person, commenting beneath The Herald-News’ article, said Grant’s still holds more than $11,000 of the writer’s upfront payments. “This is horrible,” the customer noted. “What a way to go out of business after 80 years ... and we trusted them.”

Indeed, the privately held business had served the Jolliet market for 82 years, first as a hardware and appliance store. It would later open upwards of 15 locations throughout Chicagoland, operating under the philosophy of “Turn shoppers into buyers into advertisers.”

The company was acquired from the founding family in 1993 and run by a management team led by president George Olsen. In 2003 it joined the NATM buying group but left the organization five years later.

More recently, the chain faced an influx of 17 hhgregg stores into its hometown market, along with stepped up competition from an evolving Abt Electronics.

In 2012 Grant’s operated six stores and generated $70 million in majap revenue, a 2 percent decline, according to TWICE’s Top 100 Appliance Retailers Report, where it ranked 26th.